Helen Clark: Remarks at the opening Plenary of the 17th Session of the High-level Committee on South-South Co-operation

May 22, 2012

President of the High-level Committee on South-South Co-operation,Excellencies,

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the 17th session of the High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation.

At
the outset, I wish to recognize the leadership the Republic of Kenya
has given to the High-level Committee during its presidency in the past
two years. I acknowledge the important work of both Ambassador Zachary
Muburi-Muita and his successor Ambassador Macharia Kamau. Allow me also
to acknowledge the representatives of Albania, Canada, the Philippines,
and Suriname for their dedicated service on the Bureau during the 16th
session of the Committee.

I also convey my congratulations to
Antigua and Barbuda and to you, Mr. President, and the new members of
the Bureau, who will lead the work of the High-level Committee for the
coming two years. I wish you success in guiding deliberations during
this session, and in advancing South-South co-operation during your
tenure.

The past decade has witnessed the fast rise of the Global
South and growing prominence of South-South co-operation for
development. Countries in the South maintained an average annual GDP
growth rate of 4.8 per cent over the past decade. In 2010, developing
and emerging economies recorded average growth of 7.3 per cent, which
was significantly greater than that of economies in the North.
South-South flows of finance, technology, and trade have also grown
significantly. These trends contributed to progress on achieving the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in many countries. Undoubtedly the
dynamism of the South will continue to be reflected in strong
development outcomes.

Acknowledging the fast changing global
context, UNDP’s 2012 Human Development Report will focus on the rise of
the global South, not only in terms of geopolitics and economic power,
but also as a source of innovation, knowledge, and solutions to
development challenges. The policies, skills, and technical expertise
originating from countries in the South are often the best suited to
meeting development challenges faced by others in the South.

Multilateral
organisations are increasingly including South-South co-operation
within their strategies, policies, programmes, and projects, giving
priority to documenting and disseminating best practices in development
across the South. Actors beyond governments and multilateral
organizations are also engaged.

The UN development system fully
recognizes the importance of South-South co-operation for development.
We see our organisations taking new steps to further this agenda by
creating and strengthening centres of excellence in the South, and using
new technologies and web-based platforms in support of South-South
Co-operation.

UNEP’s South-South Co-operation Exchange Mechanism
is to be launched this week. UNDP’s Teamworks platform enables rapid
dissemination of best practice and Southern exchange of development
solutions. It connects people to innovation and best practice which can
be adapted to other settings.

Facilitating South-South exchanges
of experience and knowledge is central to what UNDP does. Through our
universal presence, we have the capacity to link countries and
communities to knowledge, best practice, and lessons learned.

Over
the course of the past two years we have signed new partnership
agreements with a number of emerging economies in the South which seek
to support the sharing of knowledge and innovation across the South.

Our
policy centres also play an important role in this work. For some years
now through the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth in
Brasilia, a partnership with the Government of Brazil, we have
facilitated efforts to make Latin American experiences of cash transfers
and social protection known to other regions. We have also established
the Seoul Policy Center for Global Development Partnerships,
participated in the establishment of the International Poverty Reduction
Centre in Beijing, and, recently, with the support of the Government of
Turkey, established the International Center for Private Sector in
Development in Istanbul.

Initiatives by other UN Development Group members include:

• UNESCO’s International Centre for South-South Co-operation in science, technology, and innovation in Malaysia;

• the ILO Inter-American Centre for Knowledge Development in Vocational Training in Latin America and the Caribbean; and

•
the South-South co-operation centres established by UNIDO in China,
India, Brazil, and other middle-income countries to facilitate
industrial development.

Such initiatives are all testimony to the commitment of the United Nations system to support South-South co-operation.

In
2010, UNDP organized the Africa-China Poverty Reduction and Development
Conference in Ethiopia to discuss breakthrough approaches emerging from
the South in reducing poverty, accelerating broad-based growth, and
advancing progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in
Africa. China’s experience in lifting hundreds of millions of people out
of poverty and how that was achieved is of considerable interest.

Sharing
experiences of innovation and lessons learned also extends beyond the
realms of economic and social policy to the desire of countries in
political transition to hear from others which have faced similar
challenges. In June last year, UNDP was pleased to sponsor a forum in
Egypt which shared experiences between participants from Arab states,
Latin America, South Africa, and Indonesia. There have been a number of
exchanges of experiences around organizing elections, both supported by
UNDP and independent of it.

UNDP is pleased to host the Special
Unit for South-South Cooperation. In its role as a UN system-wide
facilitator and co-ordinator of South-South co-operation, the Special
Unit continues to facilitate the sharing of experiences and good
practices in South-South co-operation among UN agencies. It works in
synergy with UNDP’s broader knowledge management and co-ordination roles
across the UN development system at the country level.

The
Special Unit has encouraged South-South co-operation to become part of
the United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks. It has established
service platforms to document, showcase, and exchange Southern
development solutions. The Special Unit also makes available to United
Nations’ specialized agencies, funds, and programmes its multilateral
support architecture, which can facilitate links between governments,
the private-sector, civil society partners, and Southern centres of
excellence.

At the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development (Rio+20), next month, a spirit of solidarity and commitment
to joint action and joint solutions to global challenges is needed.
Deliberations during this 17th session of the High-level Committee, can
highlight South-South approaches to sustainable development, and on
accelerating progress towards achieving the MDGs.

The framework
provided by the Millennium Development Goals has been particularly
useful because it has had specific, time-bound targets, is easily
communicated, and has engaged a wide range of stakeholders to achieve
shared development objectives. As discussions are held on the post-2015
development agenda, it will be important to build on the characteristics
of the MDGs which have made them successful.

In closing, I thank
once again the President, the Bureau, and the Special Unit for
South-South Co-operation for the work they have put into preparations
for this session of the High-level Committee, and wish you all most
fruitful deliberations.

Leadership

Helen Clark became the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme on 17 April 2009, and is the first woman to lead the organization. She is also the Chair of the United Nations Development Group, a committee consisting of the heads of all UN funds, programmes and departments working on development issues.